Can cops park anywhere for free?
 

Curious about if law enforcement are allowed to park on metered spots on public streets for free. I was close to finishing my breakfast at a restaurant when I saw two cops pull up to a metered spot in a marked cruiser, walked into the restaurant, sat down and ordered food. It did not appear they had the intention of getting the food as take out. The meter was already blinking empty when they parked. I left as they started eating. I checked the meter as I walked out the door and its still empty. Can cops be ticketed for not plugging the meter? Or are they immune?

Can't really answer your question but when I pay through my phone the meter will still say 0

Lol vpd patrol vehicles are owned and insured by the city of Vancouver and it would be fairly counter productive for the city of van to ticket their own vehicles so basically yes vpd cars can park anywhere they want and my best guess is that they do not have to plug the meter

Well, not every parking lot is owned by "The City" and your example only refers to VPD and Vancouver in an environment where we RCMP as well.

Police officers can't park wherever they want, unless of course it's an emergency. They can be ticketed just like anyone car for parking without authorization/paying for a stall.

We all log into the computers in our cars, which is logged and retrievable. People do get in trouble for parking where they shouldn't be parking when not on a call (ie. parked blocking traffic or wheelchair access ramps to do foot patrols around an event). Our bylaws officers do report the obnoxious and obviously not needing to park there parking jobs to our management.

However, just like the firefighters and paramedics, we have to be able to respond to a call in an instant. This means not parking 3 blocks away when you stop for a meal. I've lost track of the number of times I've been just a few bites into a meal and had to ditch it for a file and not had a chance to eat for another 5-10+hrs. So, as long as we're not being stupid in how/where we're parked, it is a general "perk" of being able to park where we need to. Again, only within reason.

You have to start asking the waitress to bring your food to the table in "to go" containers so you can take it with you when you run out the door :)


A friend of a friend is a paramedic and was telling us how he had his ambulance ticketed by city parking enforcement for stopping the ambulance in a no stopping zone. Parking officer accused him of using the spot to get a coffee from Starbucks and stuck a ticket on the windshield. While the paramedic was in fact in the Starbucks, he wasn't in line for a coffee - he was working on a cardiac patient...

About the only thing in CHiPS that was close to real was having to dump your meal just after you started it.....far too frequently. Considering the quality of some of the fast food we eat, it just saved one step in the process.

im assuming cops can do many things US "Citizens" cant do ..... ie jay walk....